Rail Shopping by Date and Time
Low Fare Shopping can be modified to return the lowest available fares for a specified time.
Note: This functionality is supported for Low Fare Shopping and Rail Availability.
The following list shows which time preferences are available in LFS for RCS and in Rail Availability.
- PreferredTime - Supported in LFS for RCS and RailAvailability
- TimeRange -Not supported in LFS for RCS and RailAvailability
- SpecificTime -Not supported in LFS for RCS and RailAvailability
- SearchExtraDays -Not supported in LFS for RCS and RailAvailability
Request
In the SearchAirLeg Element, in addition to the required data for a Low Fare Shopping request, respectively, in the SeachDepTime and SearchArvTime children of LowFareShoppingReq/SearchAirLeg in the Air service.
- Shopping for rail fares using TCodes and UCodes is available in Rail LowFareSearchReq and LowFareSearchAsynchReq (v49.0 and earlier)
- The T and U codes are sent in SearchAirLeg/SearchOrigin or SearchDestination/RailLocation @Code.
Searching by Departure Time
Within SearchDepTime, the specific time can be modified to include time ranges. Date and time formats use the ISO-standard format.
SpecificTime indicates the preferred time for the departure or arrival. If this value is blank, the default preferred time is 8:00. There is no default date for the request; a date must always be included in the request.
If the PreferredTime attribute is included, the response returns options weighted for the preferred time, if they are available.
Time windows (TimeRange) are not supported for Rail segments. Time windows are supported for Air segments only. If both EarliestTime and LatestTime are included for SearchDepTime\TimeRange or SearchArvTime\TimeRange, only the EarliestTime is used.
Flexible dates (SearchExtraDays) are not supported. Flexible Dates are supported for Air segments only.
Searching by Arrival Time
SearchArvTime repeats the same data formats based on arrival times rather than departure times. Either a departure or arrival time can be selected; both departure and arrival cannot be selected in a single call.
Response
A standard Low Fare Shopping response is returned with flight and rail options restricted to the ranges specified in the parameters.
Note: Rail options are returned only for customers who are provisioned for Rail functionality.
Errors and Warnings
- If the provider or supplier does not support time range functionality, a warning string is returned.
- If SearchDepTime or SearchArvTime @PreferredTime AND SearchDepTime/TimeRange @EarliestTime and LatestTime values are sent in the request, the date and time values in EarliestTime and LatestTime are not used, and a warning is sent in the response.
- If EarliestTime and/or LatestTime with date/time value is sent, the following warning message is returned in the response: "Search/Pricing modifier(s) may not be supported by rail distributor."